Edmonton was a surprise win for Labour in May 1997, though the seat had been Labour before.

The seat is located in the borough of Enfield - bordering Hertfordshire - but is more characteristic of an inner London seat, despite its outer London location. The strip of wards on the west bank of the River Lea between Tottenham to the south and working class Ponders End (where Norman Tebbitt grew up) is more ethnically diverse than the area north of the Lea, which is more middle class and Conservative.

Overall the constituency boasts a 20% non-white population according to the 1991 census. The largest local ethnic minority is the Cypriot community - Greek and Turkish - many of whom settled here following the invasion and division of the island in 1974.

Much of the industry for which Edmonton was famous - furniture, electrical goods and electronics - has moved out of the area. The replacement jobs have often been low skilled with low wages - the 1991 census showed that 55% are in non-manual work. Unemployment at 5.4% is above average for the country.